Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The Dream

With all the remembrances of there have been this year of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from his birthday to the 40th anniversary of his assassination, I think we have come a long way toward realizing his ultimate dream. We may not be there yet already; in fact, I consider that the pure idealism of his speech may not be fully realized until the eschaton. But consider the following...

• A black man now appears to be the favorite to win the presidential election this November -- Barack Obama. In fact, the color of his skin has been cited by a female former vice presidential candidate as more of a political benefit than a political liability. And, in the primaries, he won in a landslide in Southern states like South Carolina & Georgia, where people of color were not impeded from voting in very high numbers. This black man attended Columbia University & law school at Harvard University, where he was the President of the Harvard Law Review.

• A man of color is the greatest golfer in the world, and perhaps of all-time -- Tiger Woods. He attended college at Stanford University. And even when this great golfer has stumbled in his career, the man who supplanted him as the world's #1 player was also a man of color -- Vijay Singh. Both of these men have won championships & are beloved by the patrons at The Masters, a tournament that was once rife with racism.

• For today and the next two days, the face of the Masters television broadcasts will belong to a black man -- Mike Tirico. He is also the lead broadcaster of ESPN's Monday Night Football productions, as well as the host of a radio show for one of ESPN Radio's most prestigious time slots. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Opportunity abounds for people of color today like never before. There's no denying that abundant progress has been made.